As she returned to Earth this week, we again caught up with the American astronaut to chat about her fascinating experiments and adjusting to life back on the blue planet.

CNN: What was it like, taking a photograph like that and realizing the impact it might have on Earth as you looked out the window?

Karen Nyberg: It definitely makes you think, because it's so beautiful when you look out the window. I couldn't even fit the entire storm in one picture. I used a 50 millimeter lens to capture as much as I could, but just knowing the devastation underneath this beautiful cloud is pretty sad.

Karen Nyberg heads back to Earth after a five-month mission in space, November 10.

Courtesy Karen Nyberg/NASA

CNN: You've also taken some other photographs which have been just as beautiful, and not caused such a devastating impact -- like sunrises over Earth.

KN: Yes, I love taking pictures and I enjoyed it more and more as the mission went on -- that's probably one of the things I'll miss the most. It was a great geography lesson for me too, to get these images from all over the world.

You see Earth a little differently -- in a strange way you feel closer to everybodyKaren Nyberg, NASA astronaut

CNN: Do you see the world in the same way, as before you went up as an astronaut?

KN: You actually do see it a little differently -- in a strange way you feel closer to everybody. I wish everybody could experience that.

CNN: What sort of experiments were you working on while you were up there?

KN: A lot of the experiments were being done on us -- looking at our eyesight and how that changes, and looking at our bone density and how that changes by the effects of micro gravity.

We also did a lot of experiments on fluids and combustion -- a lot of these are for developing systems to travel further into outer space, and a lot of them will really benefit what we're doing on Earth.

The Grand Canyon, as seen from space on October 19.

Courtesy Karen Nyberg/NASA

CNN: A lot of astronauts apparently experience long-term vision problems after returning to Earth -- is that something that's happened to you, and do you know what causes it?

KN: I had some vision changes during my stay on the space station, but it's coming back to normal again -- I think that's happened frequently to other astronauts. I haven't experienced long-term changes but we have done quite intensive studies on me and my crew mates.

CNN: What are other changes you've noticed since coming back to Earth?

Dusk settles on the Himilayas, November 4.

Courtesy Karen Nyberg/NASA

KN: It seems like I never left in a lot of ways -- it's almost a time warp. You get back to home and work, and it's like you were never away. I think I'll need to go back and look at my pictures pretty soon and reminisce.